Post by alan4jc on Aug 3, 2007 9:41:40 GMT -5
The following is Jim Wilson's testimony to his classmates, but is meant for
everyone to read.
July 2007
Dear Classmates,
Besides the greatness of the camaraderie that comes from the closeness and the
danger in the military there is something else that I have appreciated. That is
that “authority” and “obedience” are good words. The recognition of our
mortality is also a great asset.
I have not been the best at showing up at reunions, so many of you do not know
me or even recognize my name.
Here is a little background. I was in the 13th and then 19th companies in the
fourth battalion. I rowed crew for most of four years, but never got into a
varsity boat except for the first boat in plebe year.
Most of us who are still alive have had narrow escapes in Korea, Viet Nam, or
the Cold War. I had one remarkable event three months after commissioning. That
is the time when the gunnery officer told me to leave my battle station in
Gunnery Plot and come up to the Main Battery Director. We were at GQ. We were
off Tanchon on the east coast of Korea, closing range to destroy some R.R. cars.
I left the Chief Fire Controlman in charge of Plot and proceeded to the Main
Battery Director. When I got up to the Director he did not know why he had me
come up there. While I was there we hit a mine on the port side. The explosion
obliterated Gunnery Plot and flooded the forward fire room. We lost sixteen
men, six in the fire room, five in Plot, four overboard, and one died from burns
in the hospital. That evening I conducted the funeral when we buried the chief
at sea. He died in place of me. That was on the Brush. Then I spent thirty
months on Brinkley Bass, including three
two-week stints in Wonsan Harbor in ’51, ’52, and ’53, on the first of which we
lost a man on the bridge from shrapnel from a near miss by
.75mm.
Now we are 79. I read in the Wall Street Journal that the average life span of
an American is 77.6 years. That means that we are now ahead of the average by
about 1 year.
In 1956 I resigned my commission in order to represent the Officers’ Christian
Fellowship at all of the service academies. I did this for five years then
spent an additional seven years at the Naval Academy. Consequently I know men
from classes ’57 to ’72, and classes since then, but not as well.
Three major events led to that decision:
1.My own conversion to Christ during my youngster year.
2.My battle station men dying, with me not having told them the Good News.
3.Not a few officers and men receiving Christ on the ships and stations I was
on. I realized I had a gift to communicate the Good News in an effective way.
I have been remiss in not telling you. Many of you already know the Father.
Some of you do not know for certain where you will go when you die. Some of you
are formally and maybe nominally Christian, some of you are anti-religion, some
of you will get angry with me for bringing up the subject, and some of you will
really want to know what I am writing about.
Whatever the response or lack thereof, here is, hopefully, an adequate
explanation of how to go to Heaven when we die. It is possible that some of you
will not understand. It will sound like foolishness to you.
I will start by sharing with you my own experience.
My father was born in 1899. My mother was born in 1900. She and my father were
married in 1924. They had six sons, born between 1925 and 1943. I was number
two. We were a close, poor, moral, non-religious family. Our parents had very
strong convictions which they passed on to their sons in two different ways:
teaching by our mother and requirements by our father. The result in us was a
sense of superiority which today would be called “self-righteousness” or “holier
than thou.” I did not know the terms, but certainly I thought I was better than
other kids. I did not use bad language, profanity or slang. Neither did I
smoke (everyone else did), drink, or run around. I did not think I was a
“sinner.” I had reserved that word for the real bad guys. Because of this
“goody-goody” reputation I got in several fist fights in the eighth grade and a
final one in the eleventh grade. By my senior year in high school I became a
little more accepting of my classmates.
World War II started for the US in the December of my freshman year in high
school and ended in the August after my graduation in 1945. I had been very
eager to enlist, so on May 7, 1945, I enlisted. It was the day Germany
surrendered. I was not called to active duty until September of ’45. Japan had
surrendered in August the same year. During my last year in high school my
older brother Leonard had given me two books, one of which was titled Room to
Swing a Cat. In one of the two books—I don’t remember which one stated that
the Navy selected one hundred enlisted men from the fleet every year to attend
the U.S. Naval Academy. I made up my mind to attend the Naval Academy and this
book told me how to get there.
While I was in boot camp I saw the notice for the Naval Academy Prep School
(NAPS) and immediately applied. After an interview with a board of officers I
was selected for NAPS. In January 1946 I arrived at Camp Peary, VA, a former
Sea Bee training base. The school had been in session since the fall, so the
group that arrived with me was behind. In the spring, 1,200 of us took the
entrance exam; 330 of us passed. I barely passed. The Naval Academy accepted
all 330 of us with Secretary of the Navy and congressional and presidential
appointments. I entered the Naval Academy in June of ’46.
At Camp Peary; I was not a happy camper. I was moral in one sense and
insubordinate in another sense. I would argue disrespectfully with commissioned
officers. I would jump chow lines with a friend. I did not have many friends.
This was the reason I thought I was unhappy. My explanation to myself was that
I did not have friends because I did not get drunk or “laid.” I was not willing
to compromise my morals in order to have friends.
However, that was not the real reason.
Around January of ’46 I received a letter addressed to a Jim Wilson Seaman First
Class, Radio Technician, Del Monte, California. I was puzzled since I had never
been to California. It quickly became apparent that I did not know the
correspondent- there must be another Jim Wilson. I do not remember the content
of the letter other than that there were Bible quotations in the letter. This
embarrassed me. I considered myself moral, but not religious. I sent it back
to the originator with an apology for opening it. A few days or a few weeks
later a sailor came into the barracks and asked for Jim Wilson. I identified
myself. He then said that he was also Jim Wilson Seaman First Class, Radio
Technician, and that he had just arrived from Del Monte, California. He had
some of my mail. Of course we got to know each other.
I had a real problem with the friendship. Up until I met him I had compared
myself with everyone I had ever met and came out on the best end of the
comparison. This included my older brother and my father. I admired and
respected them very much, their intelligence and integrity, but still I thought
I was better. I really was self-righteous.
This other Jim Wilson had me beat. He was more moral and lived it with less
effort. He had many friends. He seemed to be happy. He was a brain. He was
an athlete. He came from a wealthy, sophisticated home. I felt inferior around
him and thought that he was putting me down. He wasn’t, but I thought he was.
For two summers in high school I worked all night in the open air at the Omaha,
Nebraska stockyards. I became fascinated with the stars and learned a little
about them. So in order to be up on him in something I decided to spend an
evening with him in the open naming the stars to him. He did not need to know
their names, but my ego needed a boost, so I bragged.
In the middle of my teaching him he interrupted me. It went something like
this:
Other Jim: “Jim, are you going to Heaven?” No one had ever asked
me that before.
ME: “I don’t know. I will wait and find out.”
Other Jim: “What do you think about it?”
ME: “I think I will go to Heaven.”
Other Jim: “Why do you think so?”
I then told him how good I was and how bad I wasn’t. If I did not make it,
Heaven was going to be thinly populated. I was not trying to be funny. He had
asked a serious question and I had answered it seriously.
However, he laughed. I thought he was putting me down. I got angry and
retorted that if he was so smart, did he know that he was going to Heaven?
Well, he replied that he did know that he was going to Heaven. He said it with
such assurance I could not say that he did not know. I asked him how he knew.
He told me of his experience with Christ. He also told me, as I remember, that
salvation was not a product of being good or not being bad. It was a gift. He
also told me that people who thought they would go to Heaven because of their
good works would not get there because of their boasting. I had been boasting.
In the ensuing discussion I am sure Jim told me the good news of the deity of
Jesus, His death for sinners, and His resurrection from the grave. I did not
understand much of what he said. What I thought I understood, I rejected. I
think I had fourteen reasons but I can only remember two. (I am writing this 59
years later.)
1. I did not think I was a “sinner.” I had reserved that word for the real bad
guys.
2.If salvation was a gift then the real bad guys could get in just as quickly as
a nice guy like me. That did not seem right to me.
Having voiced my rejection I was still intrigued with his life. I asked him
where he got all this information. He told me it was in the New Testament. I
found one, a pocket-sized King James Version. I began to read it diligently.
It made no sense to me. I kept reading it. The war was over; Jim got out of
the Navy and entered Columbia University while I entered the Naval Academy.
Freshman year was like boot camp with a full academic schedule. I did not try
to break rules but I did talk back to upperclassmen. The result was that I
accumulated many demerits. I forget how many was the limit before a compulsory
resignation from the Academy, but I was close to the limit.
In January of my Plebe year a classmate, Caryll Whipple, saw me with my New
Testament. He invited me to a Bible study group. It seemed to me to be a means
of understanding what I was reading. I told him that I wanted to attend. Then
he told me it met at 0545 in the morning. Suddenly I did not want to attend.
That was 30 minutes before reveille. When I gave excuses of not waking up he
told me that he would wake me up.
The small group met in a janitor’s broom closet. In this group I met other men
like the other Jim Wilson. One of them was Willard (Pete) Peterson 49. He had
been a Christian about a year. This group met seven days a week. I went to it
for the next 3 ½ years. Sometimes I would argue and sometimes I would try to
fake being a Christian. In the meantime my moral will power was running out. I
was a goody-goody to my classmates but this pre-reveille group knew I was not a
Christian.
The year was finally over. I was in the first boat in the Plebe crew. So while
the rest of the Brigade of Midshipmen went to Northern Europe on summer cruise I
remained for the National crew races at the Poughkeepsie Regatta. When I
finally caught up with the summer cruise fleet it was in Portsmouth, England. I
was assigned to the USS Wisconsin, an Iowa class battleship. One of my
classmates fixed me up with a blind date. The two girls were from Northern
Ireland. They worked in the Hotel Russell laundry, Russell Square, London.
Apparently my classmate’s plan (I just followed along. True, but dumb.) was to
buy a bottle of wine and feed it to the girls while necking on a park bench in
the square. I did not drink but I did help purchase the bottle. The girls got
drunk. They did not get friendly drunk. They got nasty. I went back to the
ship thanking God I hadn’t lost my virtue with these girls.
There was a daily Bible study at sea. It was on the 011 level (eleven decks
above the main deck). I was gradually learning, from the Bible and experience,
that I was a sinner.
Back at the Academy my youngster year, I was again attending the daily
pre-reveille study and still not a Christian. In early October I turned 20
years old.
It was football season and Navy had a very small stadium. So home games with
big time opponents were held in Baltimore. Two of my classmates fixed me and
themselves up with a triple blind date that we were to meet on the 30 yard line
after the game. (Navy only won two games during my four years there. This was
not one of them.) During the game I realized I would be in trouble, morally, if
I went on this blind date. I really do not remember whether I showed up and
cancelled or just did not show up. In any case I found myself alone in
Baltimore on a Saturday night. The section of Baltimore I was in was not very
Christian in its entertainment. It may have been the Block. I remembered the
Christians had something planned that they were going to but I had no idea where
or what. I bought a newspaper and looked at church advertisements. There were
many. One of them said Saturday night, corner of North Ave. and St. Paul. I
got in a cab and went there.
There were two churches on opposite corners. The Baptist Church was locked and
the Presbyterian Church was open. It looked like a few hundred people were
there. It was a Youth for Christ meeting. I went up the balcony steps to look
over the crowd. There were three midshipmen about five rows from the front. I
went down the aisle to sit next to them. One of them was Pete Peterson. The
other two were Jim Inskeep and John Bajus, all class of ’49. Pete was surprised
to see me. The director of the meeting saw us four midshipmen sitting up front
and thought we must be Christians. He came down to us and spoke to me and asked
if we would like to testify of our faith in Christ. I replied that I had
nothing to say. The other three agreed and went to the platform.
I listened to them tell their personal stories. I had a hard time believing
them. I wanted to think that they were lying, that they were hypocrites, but I
knew better. They lived the way they talked. There was a possibility that they
were mistaken. If so they were happy mistaken men. As I said earlier I was not
happy. I envied happy people. There was a third alternative, that what they
were saying was true and right.
There was singing, which was impressive. Then the main speaker for the evening
was introduced. He was a Filipino. His name was Gregorio Tingson. His text
was the first few verses of Psalm 40. Here they are:
I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD. (Psalm 40:1-3)
I remember, very well, verse 2: “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the
mud and the mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”
After the meeting Pete took me into another room and introduced me to a saving
relationship with God the Father through His Son Jesus. I was now ready. I
knew now that I was a sinner and could not save myself. I called upon the Lord.
I think that was October 18, 1947. Immediately I had joy and peace that I do
not recall ever having had before.
I went back to the Academy that night with a desire to tell everyone of the good
news of Jesus Christ. Upon reflection I realized that the Navy would think I
was crazy and discharge me. My ambition to tell everyone was reduced to telling
my roommate and classmates in my company. Then I realized that they already
thought I was too religious (daily pre-reveille Bible study) and goody-goody (no
profanity, no drinking). If I then told them that I had just been saved from my
sins that would really confuse them. “What sins, Wilson? We’ve been trying to
get you to sin all year!” I decided not to tell anyone.
In the meantime there were real changes in me that I could see but I did not
think others could see.
1. I had joy and peace.
2. The Bible which I had not been able to understand suddenly made sense.
3. I found I belonged with these pre-reveille fanatics.
4. My conscience was clear.
5. My conscience was more sensitive.
6. I realized I really cared for my roommate (loved him in a Godly way).
Several weeks went by when my roommate, Richard Daykin, asked me what happened. I
asked why he had asked. He told me that I had been pleasant for the last
several weeks.
About forty some years later I stayed with him in his home in St. Louis. We
went out for a prime rib dinner. He asked me to tell his wife what I had told
him our youngster year at the Naval Academy when we were 20-years-old. I am now
78-years-old. I now tell you what I told him those many years ago.
You may realize that you are not a Christian. If you are not a Christian then
you have a nature that is prone to sin. You need a new nature and you need to
get rid of your old nature. This cannot be done by you. It can be done only by
God.
Here is your part.
1. You need to want to be set free from the guilt and judgment for your sins,
and the power of sin.
2. You need to know that you are helpless in this want.
3. You need to know that being good and not being bad will not set you free nor
will any other means of self effort.
4. You need to know that God has already accomplished this deliverance in
sending the Lord Jesus to Earth in order to die for the ungodly. “You see, at
just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”
Romans 5:6 (NIV)
5. Three days after this death for our sins, the Lord Jesus arose from the dead
in order to make us righteous. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and
was raised to life for our justification.” Romans 4:25 (NIV)
6. The Holy Spirit is now drawing you to turn from your sin, to call upon the
Lord Jesus, trusting Him, His death and resurrection.
“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart
that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess
and are saved.” Romans 4:25 (NIV)
“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you
received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved,
if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed
in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that
he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared
to Peter, and then to the Twelve.”
I Corinthians 15: 1-5 (NIV)
Having called upon the Lord Jesus now, thank him for bringing you to the Father,
for forgiving your sin, and for giving you everlasting life.
Now, in your joy of your forgiveness tell someone about what God has done for
you.
If you would like to know God truly, not just know about him, and would like to
be sure that you will go to Heaven when you die, please write to me. I will send
you help in the form of books and booklets that will help you grow in the
Christian life.
If this has you interested at all I will be glad to correspond with you. If you
are interested, but not in writing to me, I suggest that you read the Gospel of
John and the first eight chapters of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. You may
also call on a pastor or chaplain and talk to a close friend or relative who you
think is very clearly a Christian. You are probably right in your estimation.
Respectfully a classmate and friend,
Jim Wilson
Here is a short synopsis of the 58 years since my entrance into the Kingdom. By
the time I was a first classman I was relatively a mature Christian and with
several other classmates a leader of this underground Christian movement. As you
remember we all went to church or chapel. That did not make us believers.
Since it was peacetime I asked for a ship in the Western Pacific with the idea
of being an encouragement to missionaries when we were in port.
During my 30 day graduation leave in a little town in central Nebraska, 25-30
high school and college kids came to Christ. Three of them were my brothers. One
adult received Christ; he was my father.
I went on to San Francisco to wait transportation to the USS Brush (DD745),
supposedly in the Philippines. While in San Francisco the North Koreans crossed
the 38th Parallel. When the handful of classmates finally got transportation it
was close to the middle of July. It seemed everyone wanted to go to Wespac. We
landed in Okinawa July 15. We heard a rumor that TF77 was in Buckner Bay. It was
true. I came aboard the Brush that day. The Task Force got underway on the 16th.
We supported the landing of 1st Cavalry Division in Pohang on the 18th and rode
out a typhoon the 19th.
After six weeks in a bent line screen with the carriers, Valley Forge and HMS
Triumph, Brush was sent to the front lines of the Pusan Perimeter in Pohang
Dong. We spent 20 days there, much of it at GQ, firing most of the time. I
remember three such times, one 30 hours, one 26 hours and one 16 hours. We fired
not less often than every five minutes. As plotting room officer, I was the one
pulling the trigger. After this was the trip north with the Maddox when we hit
the mine.
Then there was 30 days in the Yamato’s dry dock in Sasebo. The Brush looked like
a small boat in the bottom of the dry dock. During these days and following
visits I was able to help start an orphanage in Sasebo.
After the tour in dry dock the Brush went to Yokosuka. While in Yokosuka I
looked up Bessie Dodds, a Canadian head mistress to a Bible School for women in
Yokahama. Eighteen months later we were married in Yokahama. That was 54 years
ago on April 7, 1952.
When the Brush got patched up I requested a transfer to any combatant vessel
remaining in the forward area. I got my orders to the Brinkley Bass (DD887) at
Midway Island. I flew back to Japan and came aboard the Bass on January 1, 1951
by a high wire in the Sea of Japan right after the Hungnam evacuation.
I had one year at Monterey ‘53-‘54 then back to Japan on the staff of COM NAV FE
in Yokosuka for one year and then most of another year at Kamiseya and CarDiv 5
staff.
After leaving the Navy in Nov. 56’ we spent about 2 years in Washington D.C. In
November of 58’ we moved to Annapolis.
As a point of contact with midshipman I opened the Christian Bookshop for the
Officers Christian Fellowship on Maryland Ave. In addition to traveling to other
Academies and other military bases on the East Coast I ran the Christian
Bookshop for close to ten years. After we left Annapolis the store moved to
Parole where it has been for almost forty years. By the time you receive this it
will be closed.
In 1968 I helped open the first of 80 Logos Bookstores. This was in Ann Arbor,
Michigan. In 1971 we moved to Moscow, Idaho to open stores in the west. These
stores are not primarily business places, but people places. They have all been
part of not for profit organizations.
Bessie and I have four children, fifteen grandchildren, eleven great
grandchildren and will have thirteen before the year ends.
Our life together has been greatly blessed.
Much of this you do not need to know but some of you requested this sequel.
If you have further interest we have a web page, www.ccmbooks.org and a blog,
www.rootsbytheriver.blogspot.com.
In the Lord Jesus Christ,
Jim Wilson
--Also, check out Jim Wilson's blog at www.rootsbytheriver.blogspot.com
Community Christian Ministries
516 S. Main
Moscow, ID 83843
www.ccmbooks.org
everyone to read.
July 2007
Dear Classmates,
Besides the greatness of the camaraderie that comes from the closeness and the
danger in the military there is something else that I have appreciated. That is
that “authority” and “obedience” are good words. The recognition of our
mortality is also a great asset.
I have not been the best at showing up at reunions, so many of you do not know
me or even recognize my name.
Here is a little background. I was in the 13th and then 19th companies in the
fourth battalion. I rowed crew for most of four years, but never got into a
varsity boat except for the first boat in plebe year.
Most of us who are still alive have had narrow escapes in Korea, Viet Nam, or
the Cold War. I had one remarkable event three months after commissioning. That
is the time when the gunnery officer told me to leave my battle station in
Gunnery Plot and come up to the Main Battery Director. We were at GQ. We were
off Tanchon on the east coast of Korea, closing range to destroy some R.R. cars.
I left the Chief Fire Controlman in charge of Plot and proceeded to the Main
Battery Director. When I got up to the Director he did not know why he had me
come up there. While I was there we hit a mine on the port side. The explosion
obliterated Gunnery Plot and flooded the forward fire room. We lost sixteen
men, six in the fire room, five in Plot, four overboard, and one died from burns
in the hospital. That evening I conducted the funeral when we buried the chief
at sea. He died in place of me. That was on the Brush. Then I spent thirty
months on Brinkley Bass, including three
two-week stints in Wonsan Harbor in ’51, ’52, and ’53, on the first of which we
lost a man on the bridge from shrapnel from a near miss by
.75mm.
Now we are 79. I read in the Wall Street Journal that the average life span of
an American is 77.6 years. That means that we are now ahead of the average by
about 1 year.
In 1956 I resigned my commission in order to represent the Officers’ Christian
Fellowship at all of the service academies. I did this for five years then
spent an additional seven years at the Naval Academy. Consequently I know men
from classes ’57 to ’72, and classes since then, but not as well.
Three major events led to that decision:
1.My own conversion to Christ during my youngster year.
2.My battle station men dying, with me not having told them the Good News.
3.Not a few officers and men receiving Christ on the ships and stations I was
on. I realized I had a gift to communicate the Good News in an effective way.
I have been remiss in not telling you. Many of you already know the Father.
Some of you do not know for certain where you will go when you die. Some of you
are formally and maybe nominally Christian, some of you are anti-religion, some
of you will get angry with me for bringing up the subject, and some of you will
really want to know what I am writing about.
Whatever the response or lack thereof, here is, hopefully, an adequate
explanation of how to go to Heaven when we die. It is possible that some of you
will not understand. It will sound like foolishness to you.
I will start by sharing with you my own experience.
My father was born in 1899. My mother was born in 1900. She and my father were
married in 1924. They had six sons, born between 1925 and 1943. I was number
two. We were a close, poor, moral, non-religious family. Our parents had very
strong convictions which they passed on to their sons in two different ways:
teaching by our mother and requirements by our father. The result in us was a
sense of superiority which today would be called “self-righteousness” or “holier
than thou.” I did not know the terms, but certainly I thought I was better than
other kids. I did not use bad language, profanity or slang. Neither did I
smoke (everyone else did), drink, or run around. I did not think I was a
“sinner.” I had reserved that word for the real bad guys. Because of this
“goody-goody” reputation I got in several fist fights in the eighth grade and a
final one in the eleventh grade. By my senior year in high school I became a
little more accepting of my classmates.
World War II started for the US in the December of my freshman year in high
school and ended in the August after my graduation in 1945. I had been very
eager to enlist, so on May 7, 1945, I enlisted. It was the day Germany
surrendered. I was not called to active duty until September of ’45. Japan had
surrendered in August the same year. During my last year in high school my
older brother Leonard had given me two books, one of which was titled Room to
Swing a Cat. In one of the two books—I don’t remember which one stated that
the Navy selected one hundred enlisted men from the fleet every year to attend
the U.S. Naval Academy. I made up my mind to attend the Naval Academy and this
book told me how to get there.
While I was in boot camp I saw the notice for the Naval Academy Prep School
(NAPS) and immediately applied. After an interview with a board of officers I
was selected for NAPS. In January 1946 I arrived at Camp Peary, VA, a former
Sea Bee training base. The school had been in session since the fall, so the
group that arrived with me was behind. In the spring, 1,200 of us took the
entrance exam; 330 of us passed. I barely passed. The Naval Academy accepted
all 330 of us with Secretary of the Navy and congressional and presidential
appointments. I entered the Naval Academy in June of ’46.
At Camp Peary; I was not a happy camper. I was moral in one sense and
insubordinate in another sense. I would argue disrespectfully with commissioned
officers. I would jump chow lines with a friend. I did not have many friends.
This was the reason I thought I was unhappy. My explanation to myself was that
I did not have friends because I did not get drunk or “laid.” I was not willing
to compromise my morals in order to have friends.
However, that was not the real reason.
Around January of ’46 I received a letter addressed to a Jim Wilson Seaman First
Class, Radio Technician, Del Monte, California. I was puzzled since I had never
been to California. It quickly became apparent that I did not know the
correspondent- there must be another Jim Wilson. I do not remember the content
of the letter other than that there were Bible quotations in the letter. This
embarrassed me. I considered myself moral, but not religious. I sent it back
to the originator with an apology for opening it. A few days or a few weeks
later a sailor came into the barracks and asked for Jim Wilson. I identified
myself. He then said that he was also Jim Wilson Seaman First Class, Radio
Technician, and that he had just arrived from Del Monte, California. He had
some of my mail. Of course we got to know each other.
I had a real problem with the friendship. Up until I met him I had compared
myself with everyone I had ever met and came out on the best end of the
comparison. This included my older brother and my father. I admired and
respected them very much, their intelligence and integrity, but still I thought
I was better. I really was self-righteous.
This other Jim Wilson had me beat. He was more moral and lived it with less
effort. He had many friends. He seemed to be happy. He was a brain. He was
an athlete. He came from a wealthy, sophisticated home. I felt inferior around
him and thought that he was putting me down. He wasn’t, but I thought he was.
For two summers in high school I worked all night in the open air at the Omaha,
Nebraska stockyards. I became fascinated with the stars and learned a little
about them. So in order to be up on him in something I decided to spend an
evening with him in the open naming the stars to him. He did not need to know
their names, but my ego needed a boost, so I bragged.
In the middle of my teaching him he interrupted me. It went something like
this:
Other Jim: “Jim, are you going to Heaven?” No one had ever asked
me that before.
ME: “I don’t know. I will wait and find out.”
Other Jim: “What do you think about it?”
ME: “I think I will go to Heaven.”
Other Jim: “Why do you think so?”
I then told him how good I was and how bad I wasn’t. If I did not make it,
Heaven was going to be thinly populated. I was not trying to be funny. He had
asked a serious question and I had answered it seriously.
However, he laughed. I thought he was putting me down. I got angry and
retorted that if he was so smart, did he know that he was going to Heaven?
Well, he replied that he did know that he was going to Heaven. He said it with
such assurance I could not say that he did not know. I asked him how he knew.
He told me of his experience with Christ. He also told me, as I remember, that
salvation was not a product of being good or not being bad. It was a gift. He
also told me that people who thought they would go to Heaven because of their
good works would not get there because of their boasting. I had been boasting.
In the ensuing discussion I am sure Jim told me the good news of the deity of
Jesus, His death for sinners, and His resurrection from the grave. I did not
understand much of what he said. What I thought I understood, I rejected. I
think I had fourteen reasons but I can only remember two. (I am writing this 59
years later.)
1. I did not think I was a “sinner.” I had reserved that word for the real bad
guys.
2.If salvation was a gift then the real bad guys could get in just as quickly as
a nice guy like me. That did not seem right to me.
Having voiced my rejection I was still intrigued with his life. I asked him
where he got all this information. He told me it was in the New Testament. I
found one, a pocket-sized King James Version. I began to read it diligently.
It made no sense to me. I kept reading it. The war was over; Jim got out of
the Navy and entered Columbia University while I entered the Naval Academy.
Freshman year was like boot camp with a full academic schedule. I did not try
to break rules but I did talk back to upperclassmen. The result was that I
accumulated many demerits. I forget how many was the limit before a compulsory
resignation from the Academy, but I was close to the limit.
In January of my Plebe year a classmate, Caryll Whipple, saw me with my New
Testament. He invited me to a Bible study group. It seemed to me to be a means
of understanding what I was reading. I told him that I wanted to attend. Then
he told me it met at 0545 in the morning. Suddenly I did not want to attend.
That was 30 minutes before reveille. When I gave excuses of not waking up he
told me that he would wake me up.
The small group met in a janitor’s broom closet. In this group I met other men
like the other Jim Wilson. One of them was Willard (Pete) Peterson 49. He had
been a Christian about a year. This group met seven days a week. I went to it
for the next 3 ½ years. Sometimes I would argue and sometimes I would try to
fake being a Christian. In the meantime my moral will power was running out. I
was a goody-goody to my classmates but this pre-reveille group knew I was not a
Christian.
The year was finally over. I was in the first boat in the Plebe crew. So while
the rest of the Brigade of Midshipmen went to Northern Europe on summer cruise I
remained for the National crew races at the Poughkeepsie Regatta. When I
finally caught up with the summer cruise fleet it was in Portsmouth, England. I
was assigned to the USS Wisconsin, an Iowa class battleship. One of my
classmates fixed me up with a blind date. The two girls were from Northern
Ireland. They worked in the Hotel Russell laundry, Russell Square, London.
Apparently my classmate’s plan (I just followed along. True, but dumb.) was to
buy a bottle of wine and feed it to the girls while necking on a park bench in
the square. I did not drink but I did help purchase the bottle. The girls got
drunk. They did not get friendly drunk. They got nasty. I went back to the
ship thanking God I hadn’t lost my virtue with these girls.
There was a daily Bible study at sea. It was on the 011 level (eleven decks
above the main deck). I was gradually learning, from the Bible and experience,
that I was a sinner.
Back at the Academy my youngster year, I was again attending the daily
pre-reveille study and still not a Christian. In early October I turned 20
years old.
It was football season and Navy had a very small stadium. So home games with
big time opponents were held in Baltimore. Two of my classmates fixed me and
themselves up with a triple blind date that we were to meet on the 30 yard line
after the game. (Navy only won two games during my four years there. This was
not one of them.) During the game I realized I would be in trouble, morally, if
I went on this blind date. I really do not remember whether I showed up and
cancelled or just did not show up. In any case I found myself alone in
Baltimore on a Saturday night. The section of Baltimore I was in was not very
Christian in its entertainment. It may have been the Block. I remembered the
Christians had something planned that they were going to but I had no idea where
or what. I bought a newspaper and looked at church advertisements. There were
many. One of them said Saturday night, corner of North Ave. and St. Paul. I
got in a cab and went there.
There were two churches on opposite corners. The Baptist Church was locked and
the Presbyterian Church was open. It looked like a few hundred people were
there. It was a Youth for Christ meeting. I went up the balcony steps to look
over the crowd. There were three midshipmen about five rows from the front. I
went down the aisle to sit next to them. One of them was Pete Peterson. The
other two were Jim Inskeep and John Bajus, all class of ’49. Pete was surprised
to see me. The director of the meeting saw us four midshipmen sitting up front
and thought we must be Christians. He came down to us and spoke to me and asked
if we would like to testify of our faith in Christ. I replied that I had
nothing to say. The other three agreed and went to the platform.
I listened to them tell their personal stories. I had a hard time believing
them. I wanted to think that they were lying, that they were hypocrites, but I
knew better. They lived the way they talked. There was a possibility that they
were mistaken. If so they were happy mistaken men. As I said earlier I was not
happy. I envied happy people. There was a third alternative, that what they
were saying was true and right.
There was singing, which was impressive. Then the main speaker for the evening
was introduced. He was a Filipino. His name was Gregorio Tingson. His text
was the first few verses of Psalm 40. Here they are:
I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD. (Psalm 40:1-3)
I remember, very well, verse 2: “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the
mud and the mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”
After the meeting Pete took me into another room and introduced me to a saving
relationship with God the Father through His Son Jesus. I was now ready. I
knew now that I was a sinner and could not save myself. I called upon the Lord.
I think that was October 18, 1947. Immediately I had joy and peace that I do
not recall ever having had before.
I went back to the Academy that night with a desire to tell everyone of the good
news of Jesus Christ. Upon reflection I realized that the Navy would think I
was crazy and discharge me. My ambition to tell everyone was reduced to telling
my roommate and classmates in my company. Then I realized that they already
thought I was too religious (daily pre-reveille Bible study) and goody-goody (no
profanity, no drinking). If I then told them that I had just been saved from my
sins that would really confuse them. “What sins, Wilson? We’ve been trying to
get you to sin all year!” I decided not to tell anyone.
In the meantime there were real changes in me that I could see but I did not
think others could see.
1. I had joy and peace.
2. The Bible which I had not been able to understand suddenly made sense.
3. I found I belonged with these pre-reveille fanatics.
4. My conscience was clear.
5. My conscience was more sensitive.
6. I realized I really cared for my roommate (loved him in a Godly way).
Several weeks went by when my roommate, Richard Daykin, asked me what happened. I
asked why he had asked. He told me that I had been pleasant for the last
several weeks.
About forty some years later I stayed with him in his home in St. Louis. We
went out for a prime rib dinner. He asked me to tell his wife what I had told
him our youngster year at the Naval Academy when we were 20-years-old. I am now
78-years-old. I now tell you what I told him those many years ago.
You may realize that you are not a Christian. If you are not a Christian then
you have a nature that is prone to sin. You need a new nature and you need to
get rid of your old nature. This cannot be done by you. It can be done only by
God.
Here is your part.
1. You need to want to be set free from the guilt and judgment for your sins,
and the power of sin.
2. You need to know that you are helpless in this want.
3. You need to know that being good and not being bad will not set you free nor
will any other means of self effort.
4. You need to know that God has already accomplished this deliverance in
sending the Lord Jesus to Earth in order to die for the ungodly. “You see, at
just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”
Romans 5:6 (NIV)
5. Three days after this death for our sins, the Lord Jesus arose from the dead
in order to make us righteous. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and
was raised to life for our justification.” Romans 4:25 (NIV)
6. The Holy Spirit is now drawing you to turn from your sin, to call upon the
Lord Jesus, trusting Him, His death and resurrection.
“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart
that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess
and are saved.” Romans 4:25 (NIV)
“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you
received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved,
if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed
in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that
he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared
to Peter, and then to the Twelve.”
I Corinthians 15: 1-5 (NIV)
Having called upon the Lord Jesus now, thank him for bringing you to the Father,
for forgiving your sin, and for giving you everlasting life.
Now, in your joy of your forgiveness tell someone about what God has done for
you.
If you would like to know God truly, not just know about him, and would like to
be sure that you will go to Heaven when you die, please write to me. I will send
you help in the form of books and booklets that will help you grow in the
Christian life.
If this has you interested at all I will be glad to correspond with you. If you
are interested, but not in writing to me, I suggest that you read the Gospel of
John and the first eight chapters of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. You may
also call on a pastor or chaplain and talk to a close friend or relative who you
think is very clearly a Christian. You are probably right in your estimation.
Respectfully a classmate and friend,
Jim Wilson
Here is a short synopsis of the 58 years since my entrance into the Kingdom. By
the time I was a first classman I was relatively a mature Christian and with
several other classmates a leader of this underground Christian movement. As you
remember we all went to church or chapel. That did not make us believers.
Since it was peacetime I asked for a ship in the Western Pacific with the idea
of being an encouragement to missionaries when we were in port.
During my 30 day graduation leave in a little town in central Nebraska, 25-30
high school and college kids came to Christ. Three of them were my brothers. One
adult received Christ; he was my father.
I went on to San Francisco to wait transportation to the USS Brush (DD745),
supposedly in the Philippines. While in San Francisco the North Koreans crossed
the 38th Parallel. When the handful of classmates finally got transportation it
was close to the middle of July. It seemed everyone wanted to go to Wespac. We
landed in Okinawa July 15. We heard a rumor that TF77 was in Buckner Bay. It was
true. I came aboard the Brush that day. The Task Force got underway on the 16th.
We supported the landing of 1st Cavalry Division in Pohang on the 18th and rode
out a typhoon the 19th.
After six weeks in a bent line screen with the carriers, Valley Forge and HMS
Triumph, Brush was sent to the front lines of the Pusan Perimeter in Pohang
Dong. We spent 20 days there, much of it at GQ, firing most of the time. I
remember three such times, one 30 hours, one 26 hours and one 16 hours. We fired
not less often than every five minutes. As plotting room officer, I was the one
pulling the trigger. After this was the trip north with the Maddox when we hit
the mine.
Then there was 30 days in the Yamato’s dry dock in Sasebo. The Brush looked like
a small boat in the bottom of the dry dock. During these days and following
visits I was able to help start an orphanage in Sasebo.
After the tour in dry dock the Brush went to Yokosuka. While in Yokosuka I
looked up Bessie Dodds, a Canadian head mistress to a Bible School for women in
Yokahama. Eighteen months later we were married in Yokahama. That was 54 years
ago on April 7, 1952.
When the Brush got patched up I requested a transfer to any combatant vessel
remaining in the forward area. I got my orders to the Brinkley Bass (DD887) at
Midway Island. I flew back to Japan and came aboard the Bass on January 1, 1951
by a high wire in the Sea of Japan right after the Hungnam evacuation.
I had one year at Monterey ‘53-‘54 then back to Japan on the staff of COM NAV FE
in Yokosuka for one year and then most of another year at Kamiseya and CarDiv 5
staff.
After leaving the Navy in Nov. 56’ we spent about 2 years in Washington D.C. In
November of 58’ we moved to Annapolis.
As a point of contact with midshipman I opened the Christian Bookshop for the
Officers Christian Fellowship on Maryland Ave. In addition to traveling to other
Academies and other military bases on the East Coast I ran the Christian
Bookshop for close to ten years. After we left Annapolis the store moved to
Parole where it has been for almost forty years. By the time you receive this it
will be closed.
In 1968 I helped open the first of 80 Logos Bookstores. This was in Ann Arbor,
Michigan. In 1971 we moved to Moscow, Idaho to open stores in the west. These
stores are not primarily business places, but people places. They have all been
part of not for profit organizations.
Bessie and I have four children, fifteen grandchildren, eleven great
grandchildren and will have thirteen before the year ends.
Our life together has been greatly blessed.
Much of this you do not need to know but some of you requested this sequel.
If you have further interest we have a web page, www.ccmbooks.org and a blog,
www.rootsbytheriver.blogspot.com.
In the Lord Jesus Christ,
Jim Wilson
--Also, check out Jim Wilson's blog at www.rootsbytheriver.blogspot.com
Community Christian Ministries
516 S. Main
Moscow, ID 83843
www.ccmbooks.org